Typhoon Soulik has arrived and is drenching South Korea in heavy rain; be safe out there:
A solar panel swept off the roof of a senior citizens center in Samyang-dong, Jeju City, knocking over a telephone pole as Typhoon Soulik passed Thursday. [NEWS1]As Typhoon Soulik landed in Korea earlier this morning, the national weather administration warned of extremely strong winds and heavy rains throughout the country.
“The typhoon will bring on Friday strong winds of 30 to 40 meters per second [67 to 89 miles per hour] on land and winds of over 50 meters per second in mountainous areas,” said the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA). “With this kind of wind, glass windows, street lamps and electricity poles can break. Watch out for your safety.”
This was the first time in six years that a typhoon has landed in Korea. Typhoon alerts were issued in Jeju Island, South Gyeongsang, the Jeolla and Chungcheong regions, and in the cities of Sejong, Gwangju, Busan and Daejeon Thursday afternoon.
The weather agency said it will rain more than 50 millimeters (two inches) per hour in Jeju Island, the southern coastal regions and in Gangwon as the typhoon moves northeast across the peninsula.
The medium-sized typhoon left destruction in its path as it passed near Jeju Island from Wednesday to Thursday. Some 30 trees were uprooted in Jeju City, some 12,000 households lost power across the island – of which some 4,600 had not recovered power as of press time Thursday – and at least one person went missing. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You would think that with all the media attention on BMW cars catching fire that the owner of this vehicle would have had his car inspected and repaired by now. The cynic in me thinks we may be at a point where owners want their cars to catch on fire to launch lawsuits against BMW:
A BMW sedan caught fire in South Korea on Monday in the latest in a series of similar cases that have sparked a police investigation the German carmaker’s massive recall in Korea.
The fire broke out in the 520d sedan around 4:49 p.m. as it traveled on an expressway in the city of Mungyeong, 155 kilometers southeast of Seoul. Firefighters put out the blaze and no one was hurt, officials said.
It was the latest in more than 35 similar fires that have affected BMW vehicles this year.
Police have launched an investigation after a group of BMW owners filed a complaint accusing the carmaker of negligence and other charges. BMW has blamed defects in the exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) for the fires. [Korea Times]
It looks like the heat wave in South Korea will be ended by this typhoon:
Powerful typhoon Soulik is on course to strike the Korean Peninsula this week, the state weather agency said Sunday, warning people on Jeju Island and in southern coastal areas to prepare.
Soulik, classified as “strong” with maximum gusts of 144 km/h and central pressure of 955 hPs, was 830 kilometers east-north-east of Guam at 9 a.m. Sunday, and was moving northwest at 34 km/h, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA).
The typhoon is expected to hit southern Japan on Wednesday and the peninsula’s southern coast on Thursday morning. The southwestern city of Yeosu is expected to bear the brunt of the typhoon. [Korea Times]
It is pretty sad when politicians can’t even agree on what day their country was founded:
Rival parties clashed over a long-running controversy over the founding day of the Republic of Korea Wednesday as the country marked the 73rd anniversary of its liberation from Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule.
Conservatives have long claimed that the country was founded on Aug. 15, 1948, when the South Korean government was launched after Korea was liberated from Japan’s control in 1945 and then divided into the capitalist South and the communist North.
But the liberal bloc says that April 13, 1919, when the Korean government-in-exile was established in Shanghai, should be regarded as the day of the republic’s founding.
The ruling Democratic Party (DP) said that the conservatives’ claim is an outdated idea based on ideological division. But the main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) insisted that to deny the country’s founding in 1948 is to disavow South Korea’s legitimacy. [Yonhap]
"In a 2015 study, women were 5.9 times more likely than men to not be fully dressed in Hong Kong ads, 22.89 times more likely in Japanese ads, and 56.83 times more likely in South Korean ads." https://t.co/Csu6Vr8k0Lpic.twitter.com/eXrooYYzYr
It's a bit weird and yet understandable. Some of my best older Korean friends are among this lot. I don't try to belabor the point and just accept them as my friends with… https://t.co/k2eG0OfoqL
The Moon administration is now playing defense over the reports of ships carrying North Korean coal being allowed to dock in South Korea:
A Belize-flagged ship, the Jin Long, is docked at a port in Pohang, on South Korea’s east coast, on Aug. 7, 2018. (Yonhap)
The South Korean government on Tuesday dismissed a report that another foreign vessel carrying North Korean coal has entered a southeastern port in the country, potentially in breach of U.N. Security Council sanctions.
VOA, a U.S.-based broadcaster, reported earlier that a Belize-flagged ship, the Jin Long, docked at South Korea’s southeastern port of Pohang on the weekend and is still believed to be at the port. It cited the MarineTraffic vessel locating service.
The ship had been spotted at the Russian port of Nakhodka, along with black materials believed to be North Korean coal, days before arriving in Pohang, it added.
Rep. Yoo Ki-june, a South Korean opposition lawmaker, also said the freighter suspected of carrying 5,100 tons of North Korean coal is anchored at the Pohang port.
South Korea’s foreign ministry confirmed the entry of the ship itself but said it’s carrying Russian coal.
“There has been no confirmation of a violation of the (U.N.) Security Council resolution in an inspection of the ship by related authorities,” the ministry’s spokesman Noh Kyu-duk said at a press briefing. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but of course the documents are going to say it is “Russian coal”. These would not be very good smugglers if they are advertising they are shipping North Korean coal. What are the intelligence agencies saying that it is because they have the assets to determine where the coal actually came from.
It would be helpful if the article would have specified which news outlets were not invited to the news conference. Maybe the embassy only invited major news outlets and not smaller ones?:
Ambassador Harry Harris
New U.S. Ambassador Harry Harris held his first news conference Thursday since taking the job. The former admiral invited several newspapers and broadcasters, but others were not invited.
Certainly, it was his prerogative to invite who he wished, but this approach often carries risks.
In Harris’ case, it could send a wrong message not just to the uninvited media outlets but by extension their readership or audiences.
The “wrong” message is that the new ambassador is emulating his boss, President Donald Trump, picking choosing from the media so he can speak to outlets he views as favorable (in Trump’s case, Fox) and lumping the rest as fake news producers (in Trump’s case, CNN).
If he was following Trump’s lead, then it would not be a wrong message but an intended one. [Korea Times]
